Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-10-02

fence at the tract, which they asserted
bad been forged by Cettle, assisted,
perhaps, by Nash, after tue authors
decease.
This shows clearly that Shakespeare
was at that time the possessor OF q lit
erary reputation which he felt called
upon TO defend, and which must have
been worth the while. But the anger
of the great poet served better pur-
pose, for 1t set Cettle, fair. minded,
honest man, upon an inquiry as to the
personal and literary character of him
who claimed to have been 1njustly as
sailed.
Shortly after the appearance of the
GroatswOrth of Wit" Cettle pub
lished book entitled "Kind Harris
Dreame." in the preface of which he
referred TO the controversy. He spoke
slightingly OF Marlowe, but set forth
Shakespeare in the character of an
honest. well-bred man, a good actor,
and an excellent dramatist To those
who believe that we know nothing of
SHAKESPEARE except as deer-staDker,
lecher, and forger of genealogies, it
ought TO be a revelation, and cannot
be too frequently read. 1t was written
in the latter part of the year 1892, be-
fore our author was twenty years
old, and runs as follows
About three months since died Mr..
Robert Greene, leaving many papers in
sundry booksellers hands; among
others his GrOatsworth OF Wit" in
which letter written to divers play
makers is Extensively by one or two Of
them taken, and because on the dead
they cannot be avenged they wilfulIy
forge in their conceits living author,
and, after tossing it to and fro, no
remedy but IL must light on me. How
| have all the time of my conversing in
printing hindored the bitter inveying
against scholars it hath been very we'll
known, and how in that dealt | can
sufficiently prove. With neither of
them that take offence was | &C.
quainted. and with one Of them | care
not If l never he. The other, whom
at that time | did not so much spare
as since | wish l had, for that
as | have moderated the heat of living
writers, and might have used my own
discretIon-eS especially in such case.
the author being dead-that / did not /
am az sorry as if the original fault had
been my fault, because myself have
seen his demeanor no less civil than
excellent in the quality he prOfessed
Besides, divers of worship have re-
ported his uprightness of dealing,
which argues his honesty, and his face
tious grace in writing, which approves
his ant. For the first, whose learning
reverence, and, at the perusing of
GrCencs book, stroke ont what then in
conscience thought be in some displea-
sure wit or had it been true, yettOpub-
lish it wasintOlerable him would wish
to use me no worse than | deserve. |
had only III the copy this share 1t was
ill-writton, rs some times Greene's hand
was none Of the best licensed it must
be ere it could be printed, which could
never be if it might not be read To
be brief. | writ it over, and, as near as
! could followed the copy, only IN that
letter | put something out, but in the
whole book not a word in, FOR / protest
ii Was all Greene's. not mine nor Mas
ter Nash's, as some have unjustly af-
tirmed.
In 1888 Greene published the most
famous Of his prose works, " PandostO,
the Triumph of Time or, The History
of Dorastus and Fawnia." The stOR,
which is pleasing and possessed of con
siderable merit, Is the invention of the
author.
Notwithstanding the fierce assault
which Greene had made upon Shak-
speare in the Groatswortb of Wit"
the latter did not scruple TO appropri-
ate to himself the fruit of the brain of
the dead poet. From " PandostO " he
produced the "Winter's Tale" He
added some characters, such as PaulinG
and the young shepherd, but in the
main he followed the story as told by
Greene. He even copied, with the
plot, the ludicrous blunder OF the au-
thor, and located a portion of the play
on the seacost of Bohemia, when "there
happens to be-" as Corporal Trim says
to Uncle Toby in his effort to relate the
" story of the King of Bohemia and
his seven castles" "throughout the
whole kingdom of Bohemia no seaport
whatever"
Lord Bacon possessed a mind as
nearly original as the world has ever
produced. With the exception of
mathematics, he investigated and
adorned the entire cycle of human
knowledge. As lawyer he rivalled
Sir Edward Coke as an essayist he
stands unapprcached as a scientist he
lowered above his age, and he may
Justly be termed the father OF modern
philosophy.
Eager, as he und0ubtod was, to shine
as the greatest man OF any age or ma
ton, is it probable that he would have
STONED to steal the ideas Of such men
as Pcele and Greene, when he possess
Cd a genius so far transconding theirs
Could his trained, critical mind have
permitted him to commit the numerous
errors found IN the earlier plays OF
Shakespeare?
If it he suggested that the first OF
the plays may indeed have been written
by our author, and that Bacon later on
assumed the pen, it can be answered
that the earliest of all the plays known
to be genuine contain sparks of true
poetic tre-blasts of that divine afiiatus
which, later on, were destined to burst
into never dying flames in Hamlet
and "The Merchant of Venice"
Ben. Jonson wrote of Shakespeare
Z" loved the man, and do honor to his |
memory. On this side idolatry as |
much as any. He was indeed of an /
open and free nature had an excellent |
fancy, brave notions, and gentle ex-
pressions, wherein he flowed with that |
facility that sometimes it was necessary
it should be stopped. His wit was in |
his own power would the rule of it |
had been SO too But he redeemed his |
vices with his virtues. There was even
more in him TO be praised than to be
pardoned. "
Rev. Thomas Fuller, the popular
preacher of Cambridge and London,
who was born twenty-nine years before
Jonson's death, says, in his History
Of the Worthless of England" MANY
were the wit cOmbats betwlxt Shak-
speare and Ben. Jonson, which two |
behold like Spanish great galleon and
an English man-of-war. Master jon
son, like the former, built far higher
in learning solid but slow in his per-
formances. Shakespeare, with the Eng
lish man. of-war, lesser in bulk but
lighter in sailing, could turn with all
tides and take advantage OF all winds
LIZ, tho ,,,icknoss Of his uiI and inron |